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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Dave Green <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:14:39 -0400
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kathy Kellison" <[log in to unmask]>

> I believe this could occur hit and miss. In personal conversation
> with Eric Mussen he shared that the 'nature' of botulism is for the cells
> to clump together, that you would find botulism totally absent from some 
> sources of
> bottling or whatever and in the next, loaded.


That's not the point.

 It's not a question of spores found in honey. Botulism spores are 
ubiquitous. They are more likely found on the pacifier that got dropped on 
the supermarket floor, wiped off and stuck back in the kid's mouth. It 
dosn't matter whether they are in the jar or not; they are everywhere.

The point is that honey, or any sweetener, mixed with the infant's 
(non-acid) digestive juices gives an ideal medium for botulism to grow and 
produce toxin. Once the infant is old enough to have an acid digestive 
environment, botulism spores cannot grow.

Botulism cannot grow in the presence of oxygen, in a concentrated sugar 
solution (as opposed to a dilute one), or in an acid environment. That's why 
you can safely home can pickles or tomatoes in a hot water bath, but green 
beans must be done in a much hotter pressure canner in order to kill the 
spores. The spores may well be present in the tomatoes or pickles, but 
cannot grow, thus cannot produce toxin. But the non-acidic green beans are a 
deadly medium, if all spores are not killed.

Dave Green 

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